tifacola's Profile

I wanted to come on and share my experience. I bought a white petrie sofa on Craigslist today for only 180 bucks! Well I am pretty good at removing stains and figured I screwed it up, 200 bucks wasn't too much to lose trying! I've learned quite a few tricks over the years. I'm a bit of a sofa whore.

After my day long learning experience I'm going to let you in on how to clean your sofa.

1.Removed the bottom cushions and wash in COLD WATER with Clorox Bleach.

You'll have to remove the buttons. Mine were already removed by the former owner. (I accidentally washed them in hot water and they shrunk a bit and I spent all day stretching them out!)

2.Take the back pillows to the Laundromat and wash in a 60lbs industrial wash machine in COLD WATER with Clorox Bleach. You can also remove your agitator from your machine or use a front loader. Just make sure the bleach is making good contact with the fabric.

you could also spray bleach/water mixture directly on fabric then launder.

3.Use Oxy Clean to pretreat soiled arms and stains.

4.Use Bissel Little Green Machine to shampoo the sofa with regular carpet shampoo.

5.Use DISH WASHING MACHINE detergent on the seems on the arms. Scrub it in and let it sit.

6.Take steam cleaner and spray a constant stream of water on/into the arms (put a towel on the floor) until it looks as though the dish detergent is washed down.

7. remove excess water all over whole sofa

8. Spray 3% hydrogen peroxide directly into dirty discolored seems.

9. Spray 3% hydrogen peroxide all over whole sofa.

10. Let air dry, the hydrogen will take a half a day to really brighten the fabric. But those dirty arms will look new again!

I triple checked that the fabric is made out of a cotton-synthetic blend so you will not have much problems with discoloration. I suggest you use a fabric softener on cushions. It relaxes the fabric.

11. SCOTCH GUARD!!!

PS, hydrogen peroxide works awesome on pet stains on synthetic carpets as well! NEVER put Hydrogen peroxide on wool! It will turn orange/yellow.

love the on the floor sectional. sure I can't afford that though.

ooooow.. trying to figure out if I could get a permit for such a thing here in Seattle.

yes, I love that painting! MAN it really makes your room look SO COOL! Who's the artist? You?

This is an example how large canvas art really can transform the look of a room vs most framed displays often shown on this site. Canvas has a softer look to it. Very nice!

As far as the balcony. It still gives a really airy, open effect as if you had a balcony. It's still a plus in my opinion.

What I usually do is sell something. Like that mid century modern collectable that I found at a thrift store and picked up, not because I wanted it, but because it was a good deal and I knew I could make money on it. Either that or extra electronics like a flat panel TV in the extra bedroom, or an extra laptop. I collect computers like I do antiques. I always price things to sell w/in hours on Craigslist. That usually about does it for me.

When I run out of extra things to sell then I think seriously about selling the vehicles. I have had to sell a couple vehicles in the past because my husband and I weren't making mortgage on time on a regular basis. We're lucky enough that we usually own our cars and trucks out-right. On top of having the extra 10's of thousand's of dollars in your savings, you save on tabs and car insurance which is an added bonus. We're down to a cheapo, beater, commuter Toyota mini truck and an f150 for camping and hauling mid-century furniture home from the thrift store. LOL Now if only Seattle had a better mass transit system we might get rid of them all.

I think our problem is living w/in our means. Especially in this climate. My husband has been on and off unemployment since January, so we've had to play a little hard-ball with our mortgage company to get them to lower our interest rate. Fun stuff.

LOL, I'd hate to see a fire break out there!

Weird, that pink sofa and blue wall...LOVE, but with the red stove...PUKE!

BTW, there's a place in Seattle (actually Tacoma) Dead Man's Attic that is selling a pink settee like this

found the link. right on!

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/fud/1128655848.html

I painted the seats in my husbands Mazda mini truck. We also own a Ford Harley Davidson f150 truck that is just blacked w/ leather interior and is just REALLY nice. So when we decided to get a commuter, it was hard for him to go from such a beautiful truck to this grey interior economy thingy. In the middle of November in Seattle, and I decided to make his truck a "mini-me" of his Harley truck and replaced the gray carpets w/ black, new wheels to match the harley truck, painted all the interior plastic and pleather, and even painted fabric seats black. I know quite a lot about the interior of a car now, it's pretty funny. LOL Anyhow, I used that Simply Spray fabric paint and it went on really well. The smell isn't bad at all and it doesn't make the fabric stiff like spray paint might. Really super cool stuff.

I have a whole box left and have been searching for something else to use it on. I've been lucky enough to have bought exactly the furniture I wanted w/in the last few years. But if I were still decorating with upholstered thrift store finds, I wouldn't hesitate at all to use it on a sofa or any chair. It doesn't come off on fabric at all.

here's a link to the stuff.

http://www.simplyspray.com/

Mrs. Mack, I think your mom rocks!

I filled my boss' office with balloons and stuck a 100 dollar bill in one of the balloons and "funny money" in the others so that he couldn't just start cleaning up the mess right away but had to pop every single one of those balloons until he found the money. I hung a sign with a needle for him that read, "where's Benjamin?" He was a brass, hard-a type, ex marine little Hitler, but it actually made him smile, especially as he left early with his coworkers for drinks on me. LOL Best prank I ever pulled though. He never really liked me until that day.

oooh the Petrie Sofa. ALWAYS love it. And the sputnik chandelier. I'm jealous! I love how you make ikea look good, I'm glad I'm not the only one that rocks the ikea for all that it's worth.

Loves it!